- St Hugh`s College

Transcription

- St Hugh`s College

St Hugh’s College Oxford
Keeping alumni in touch with the latest news and events at St Hugh’s College
Inside this issue
» Dickson Poon China Centre Building » A New Space for Chinese Art in Oxford
» Larkin Letter Discovered
» Tackling Ebola
» The May Ball
» Latest News and Events
S T H U GH ’ S C O L L E G E , O X FO R D
Editorial
Contents
A message from the Principal
1
FEATURE
David Morley Architects: a vision for St Hugh’s
2
Sir Quo-Wei Lee: an enduring relationship
4
A new space for Chinese Art in Oxford
6
Wordsworth Tea Room
12
Accommodation13
Larkin letter discovered
14
COLLEGE AND ALUMNI NEWS
The Leverhulme Trust Grant
16
Writing Brecht
17
The Google DeepMind Research Centre
18
New appointment – Horst Eidenmüller
19
Tackling Ebola
20
At Least We Lived22
Songkick23
Awards23
Alumni news in brief
24
The May Ball
28
DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS
St Hugh’s Events 2014 - 2015
Myanmar University of Yangon
English Language Summer School
Discretionary Fund
Alumni Memories: Return to Vienna
Events for your diary
St Hugh’s College Oxford
Keeping alumni in touch with the latest news and events at St Hugh’s College
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Inside back cover
Credits
© St Hugh’s College 2015
Front cover photograph by Clive Nichols
for David Morley Architects
Inside this issue
» Dickson Poon China Centre Building
» Larkin Letter Discovered
» The May Ball
» A New Space for Chinese Art in Oxford
» Tackling Ebola
» Latest News and Events
This is the first edition of the
St Hugh’s Magazine since my
appointment as Director of
Development in August 2014, and
I could not have joined the College
at a more exciting time. Our centre
piece this year focuses on the
University of Oxford Dickson Poon
China Centre Building at St Hugh’s,
which was formally opened in
September 2014. I hope that you
will enjoy reading about the vibrant
atmosphere and exciting academic
life taking place in this new space at
College, and that many of you will
come to visit it over the coming months.
In my first six months here, I was overwhelmed by the warm welcome which
I received from staff, alumni and friends of the College. When I first started
at St Hugh’s, my mind was a blank canvas as to which aspects would be
remembered throughout the generations. As I have met hundreds of you
since then, your memories, stories and anecdotes have painted a rich picture
of St Hugh’s. Through this, I have been able to appreciate even more how
significant the recent growth of the College has been, and how this moment fits
in with its heritage.
I grew up with an interest in history and heritage, volunteering when I was
12 years old as an archaeological digger at the Roman Fort at Piercebridge.
My degree, in English Literature and History of Art from UEA, showed my
deepening interest, specialising in Victorian Art, Literature, social history and
architecture. My first job straight out of university was as a Museum Assistant
in Middlesbrough – the start of a career in museums that included the Royal
Pavilion, the British Museum, where I was part of the team that built the Great
Court, and the V&A. I have also worked in the HE sector, spending 6 years at
the University of Westminster, where I ‘discovered’ and raised the funding to reopen the cinema that showed the Lumiere Brothers first moving image in 1896.
Women in art history is a particular interest of mine and I was instrumental in
the development of the only UK exhibition showing the work and influence
of Angelica Kauffmann, one of two women founding members of the Royal
Academy.
Much of this edition of the Magazine focuses on history – the past flowing into
the present, with articles covering: a significant discovery from our archives of
a letter to Rachel Trickett by Philip Larkin, memories from Vienna in the 1930s
from Helga Harrison, and more recent events from College such as the 2015
St Hugh’s Ball. As my role will increasingly focus on the strategic direction for
St Hugh’s fundraising over the coming years, I would like to introduce you to my
new team. Thomas Kidney, a graduate of Brasenose College, is our new Regular
Giving Manager and Luke Bradshaw will be focussing on fundraising for academic
posts, scholarships and bursaries. Jen Stedman will continue in her role as Alumni
Relations Manager.
I have every confidence that, with your continued support, St Hugh’s will
continue to flourish and I look forward to being an active part of this for years to
come.
Sarah Carthew Director of Development
WWW.ST-HUGHS.OX.AC.UK
ST HUGH’S COLLEGE MAGAZINE
A Message from The Principal
As I reflect on the past twelve months at St Hugh’s, it is no surprise that the opening
ceremony of the University of Oxford Dickson Poon China Centre Building, on 8 September
2014, is a very prominent memory. The completion of this innovative and ambitious project
signified so much more than acquiring a new building. It was a culmination of efforts
from members of the College community around the globe, and so many distinguished
and enlightened educational philanthropists, including Sir Dickson Poon. It is a marvellous
testimony to the strength of support for a visionary, forward-thinking undertaking.
On the day of the opening, I was struck by the warmth,
openness and friendship with which alumni, friends of the
College, staff members, students and their families came
together to celebrate the success of this campaign. Our
Guest of Honour, HRH The Duke of Cambridge, spoke
freely to many of those gathered, on a morning which also
marked the announcement of the Duchess’ pregnancy with
HRH Princess Charlotte.
Later on, in his formal speech, the Duke acknowledged
the uniqueness of this achievement in its multi-faceted
benefit to academics, students and visitors alike, and the
wider international impact of the Centre for the study of
China at the University of Oxford. In a rapidly-changing
world in which China holds a significant influence, the Duke
emphasised what a brilliant opportunity it is for St Hugh’s to
put itself at the heart of learning from, and research about,
this powerful country.
I hope you will enjoy reading about the many aspects of our
new building – while the bricks and mortar are now set, the
community itself is continually developing and growing. The
same must remain true for St Hugh’s, and the successful
completion of a project on this level of magnitude leads
almost seamlessly into posing the question, ‘what is next?’.
Professor George
Garnett alongside the
Vice-Chancellor, the
Principal and University
officials.
The College has a rich heritage, in figurative as much as in
physical terms, and we must now turn to a new phase of
development at St Hugh’s. The next period has entailed
strategic thinking in all areas. In what way should we maintain
and enhance the
buildings on our
current site? How can
we ensure that these
buildings flourish,
and continue to
offer our students a
stimulating environment in which to live and study? A highly
significant new appointment for St Hugh’s has been that
of Sarah Carthew as Director of Development. Sarah’s
experience from the British Museum and the V&A, where
she discovered and led the project to develop the historic
cinema on Regent Street, places her at the heart of the
College’s new growth phase.
Our duty lies not only with continuing our reputation as
a centre for academic excellence, but also with cultivating
a setting in which learning and living complement each
other. Our successful China Centre campaign gives us the
confidence to look to the future of our College inventively,
while preserving our outstanding environment.
If we are to build on this achievement, our primary resource
remains our wonderful, vibrant and welcoming academic
community. Professor George Garnett, Tutorial Fellow in
History, was admitted as the University’s Senior Proctor
in March. This ancient position, older than the role of
Vice-Chancellor, will see Professor Garnett responsible
for ensuring that the University runs in accordance with its
Statutes, including the conduct of ceremonies.
This year, College appointed Professor Anthony Watts,
Tutorial Fellow in Biochemistry, the C W Maplethorpe
Fellow in Biological Sciences, as Vice-Principal. Tony’s
exceptional work in the development of spectroscopic
methodologies has provided novel insights into membrane
structure and function, for which he received the Biophysical
Society Anatrace Membrane Protein Award. It is just one
example of the valuable and imaginative academic work that
we are so proud to be supporting at St Hugh’s.
It is my hope that, as we step into the next phase for the
College, our alumni will continue to draw ever closer as the
tight-knit, loyal circle which helps St Hugh’s to maintain its
core values.
© John Cairns
Rt Hon Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC, Principal
1
The vision for the new St Hugh’s College building
by David Morley, David Morley Architects
The Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre Building
completes the second phase of David Morley Architects’ plan for
St Hugh’s College. Its realisation has been made possible by the
merging of two aspirations: to provide high quality teaching facilities
and student accommodation to cater for the evolving needs of
St Hugh’s College and to provide a state of the art facility to house
the Centre of Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford. This
has allowed St Hugh’s to realise the potential of its land through
collaboration with the University in both academic terms and financial
terms and to facilitate the kind of collaborative and multidisciplinary
work so vital for the China Centre, which previously lacked any
purpose-built accommodation, suitable to its needs and importance.
A share of the new building, with independent access, will now provide
a permanent home with the level of dynamism which befits a hub of
cross-disciplinary activity, devoted to the study of, collaboration with,
and welcome of visitors from one of the most significant and growing
economic powers of the world.
THE MASTER PLAN
THE BUILDING
The new building provides 5,500 square metres of floor
space in four and five storey blocks arranged around a
central sunken courtyard garden which brings light into a
basement storey. This configuration allows the development
potential of the site to be maximised whilst keeping the
building mass in line with its surroundings. The exterior
is articulated as a series of three linked pavilions which
relate to the scale of the adjacent Victorian houses. The
configuration of floors maximises efficiency of construction
© David Morley Architects
The Master Plan was commissioned in 1997 by Derek
Wood QC, the then-Principal and the Governing Body, and
covered the College’s 14½ acre site which lies at the heart
of the North Oxford Victorian Suburb Conservation Area.
The College buildings consist of six purpose built blocks,
the first built on the current site in 1916 and the latest in
1999 (the Maplethorpe Building), and the Victorian houses
acquired incrementally over that time. The Master Plan
evolved from a historical analysis of the development of the
College, considering its distinctive qualities and comparing
those to other Oxford colleges. This suggested an approach
to transform the amalgam of former rear gardens into an
organised sequence of garden spaces which would echo the
traditional model for a college arranged around a sequence
of courtyards. The expression of principal communal
buildings in the College was then emphasised by siting the
new academic facilities in a prominent position facing the
existing library. Together, the new academic facilities and
library define the north and south edges of a Middle Garden
forming a ‘hub’ to the College around which the Master Plan
revolves. The Maplethorpe Building and the row of mature
beech trees define the west and east edges of the Middle
Garden. This arrangement has preserved the historical
garden in front of the Main Building and has also defined a
new garden, more residential in character, to the west of the
Maplethorpe Building. This work was completed as part of
the first phase in 1999. The new Dickson Poon University
of Oxford China Centre Building, conceived originally as an
accommodation building, developed as the China Centre
following Sir Andrew Dilnot’s and Professor Andrew
Goudie’s concept.
2
The Bodleian KB Chen
Library
© Clive Nichols for David Morley Architects
F EA TU RE THE NE W CHINA CE NTRE B UI LD I NG
materials by providing three storeys of student residential
accommodation (63 rooms) in bookends at the east and
west sides within the space of two storeys of academic office
accommodation on the longer elevations facing north and
south.
The design of the external envelope of the building has
been developed to offer high environmental performance
and to minimise CO2 emissions. The building fabric is highly
insulated. The orientation, building massing and window
design have been designed to reduce the heating and cooling
energy demands of the building. Energy is supplied by a
Central Heat and Power Unit which simultaneously provides
a low carbon solution for hot water and electrical generation.
Solar panels on the building’s roof generate a portion of the
electricity for the building. The exterior material treatment
of the building matches the look and feel of the Maplethorpe
Building and continues the theme of exposed concrete with
recycled blast furnace aggregate (giving it a colour similar to
Oxford stone) and natural oak timber.
INTERNAL SPACES
The layout of the building seeks to build on the benefits
of the collaboration between St Hugh’s College and the
China Centre. The central atrium encourages a mingling
of occupants and exchanging of ideas as students and
academics circulate via the glazed lift, the helical staircase
and the link bridges to the lecture theatres, the library,
the teaching spaces in the China Centre and the shared
accommodation. At the top of this staircase, the lift emerges
into a glazed rotunda which gives access to the roof terrace
garden, opening up new views of the College grounds, north
Oxford and glimpses to the countryside beyond. A glazed
rooflight above the lift shaft also helps to bring natural light
down to illuminate the stair and atrium.
The lecture theatre seats 100 people and can be divided
into two separate 50-person lecture theatres with a movable
wall. The space is acoustically treated with timber panelling
and lighting is provided by a pattern of square light fittings
in the circular concrete coffers. The glass screens which
flank the auditorium and the upholstery of the folding seats
extend the permeation of the colour red in a variety of hues
throughout the building.
The atrium faces out to the Sir Quo Wei Lee Courtyard,
which provides a new garden space for the College at
the centre of the building. It is situated a level down from
external ground level, bringing natural daylight into the
Bodleian Library and providing further opportunities for
informal teaching and events. The garden follows an oriental
theme with clusters of bamboo, one of which is encircled
by a red bench, and paving following the most auspicious
alignment defined by Feng Shui guidance. A corten steel
artwork forms the main focal point on one side of the
garden while on the other side is the four-storey glazed wall
of the atrium.
The Bodleian KB Chen Library houses the Bodleian’s
collection of books on the study of China. It is located in the
basement alongside the external courtyard and provides a
variety of flexible modern learning spaces, from the simple
reading desks alongside the glazed wall to the courtyard,
illuminated by natural daylight, to the more secluded study
carrels which can be booked out for long periods by
research students.
At ground floor level, the Wordsworth Tea Room provides
a further flexible space for use by students and academics.
In day-to-day use, it is the College café, with a combination
of informal lounge seating, and tables and chairs for eating
and socialising. For events, it can be reconfigured as a more
traditional Oxford college dining hall for up to 200 people.
The room opens onto the Middle Garden via large sliding
glass doors and a patio with tables and chairs to allow
enjoyment of the garden.
On the levels above, a suite of seminar rooms face out
towards the College library with generous fully glazed bay
windows reinforcing the connection with the garden setting
below. This also gives a nod towards the architectural
language of bay windows found in the Howard Piper Library
and in many other St Hugh’s College buildings.
The building uses a traditional palette of materials in a
contemporary way. The base materials of concrete and oak
are complemented with articulations of deep red, referencing
the high quality red lacquer of ancient Chinese craftsmanship.
A further reference to the Chinese influences within the
detail of the building can be found in the combination of
circles and squares, echoing the geometry of an ancient
Chinese coin. This can be found in a number of areas
throughout the building, from the helical stair wrapping
around the square glazed lift shaft to the square luminaires
inside circular concrete coffers.
3
Sir Quo-Wei Lee
An enduring relationship with St Hugh’s
by Wendy Li and Joanna Lee (Law, 1999)
At the heart of the new China Centre building lies
the Sir Quo Wei Lee Courtyard. It is a touching
recollection of his long-term relationship with the
College, remembered here by his daughter Wendy Li
and granddaughter Joanna Lee, herself an alumna of
St Hugh’s.
Joanna Lee: My grandfather never went to university. His
working career started right after attending secondary school at
St Joseph’s College in Hong Kong. However, he had always told
me the importance of having a quality tertiary education. He
had a firm belief in giving talented students an opportunity to
study in an excellent university and therefore founded the Ho,
Leung, Ho, Lee scholarship.
The first time Grandpa told me about St Hugh’s and Oxford
was when I was 9 or 10. It was the summer of 1997 when he
brought me to visit St Hugh’s and its gardens. I still remember
that warm August day when we walked around the lawn
outside the Main Building. He recounted his first visit to the
College and took me to have a peek in the Law Library. It was
on that summer day that I fell in love with St Hugh’s and hoped
to be able to study there.
The University of
Oxford Dickson Poon
China Centre Building.
Grandpa encouraged me to always search for the right answers
and gain an in-depth knowledge of any subject in which I was
interested. He emphasised that there is no end to knowledge
(学无止境) and that one of the qualities which Oxford
encourages its students to have is persistence for the truth and
intellectual engagement.
(L to R) Hon Sir Denys Roberts, Mrs Helen Lee, Sir Quo-Wei and Ann Smart.
Wendy Li: Sir Quo-Wei Lee, my late father, was a staunch
believer in the empowering influence of education, not
just for the individual, but on society as a whole. That was
probably the reason why, despite his numerous public
service appointments in Hong Kong, his main focus remained
on education, especially at the tertiary level. Besides having
served as Chairman of the Board of Education and the
Education Commission, he assisted in the establishment
of many of the universities in Hong Kong and served for
over 15 years as Chairman of the Council of The Chinese
University of Hong Kong. He was also instrumental in the
establishment of the Hang Seng School of Commerce (now
Hang Seng Management College).
My late father came to know more about St Hugh’s College
in 1981, when he was approached through an intermediary
to support the College’s Development Fund for the
refurbishment of the graduate accommodation houses on
Woodstock Road. He was, of course, deeply impressed
by the established tradition of St Hugh’s as an outstanding
women’s college and its academic excellence. In addition,
he highly valued the direct entry arrangement which
gave qualified Hong Kong students a better opportunity
to study at St Hugh’s. This meant that applicants, after
having obtained the requisite A-Level passes in July, were
interviewed by a selection committee in Hong Kong in
August. This committee comprised the Hon Sir Denys
Roberts (then Chief Justice), the Hon Alex Wu, Ann Smart,
and my father. The successful candidates were admitted to
commence study at St Hugh’s in October of the same year.
To make this a reality, my father rallied three other senior
colleagues from Hang Seng Bank, S.H. Ho, Ho Tim, and
K.K. Leung, and each responded with a generous donation.
The houses which they sponsored were named after
them, and thus the Ho, Leung, Ho and Lee Studentship
scheme was established in 1982. While a maximum of four
4
Sir Quo-Wei Lee
Courtyard, Dickson
Poon Building.
studentships were available, it was not often that the full
quota was met. The selection committee maintained an
exceptionally high standard, and by 1989, only 20 places had
been offered, and 15 taken up by Hong Kong students.
It had always been my father’s wish that the establishment
of a strong Hong Kong alumni base would help develop
an even closer relationship with St Hugh’s. He derived a
lot of gratification from his close association with St Hugh’s
and was, needless to say, particularly honoured to have
been made an Honorary Fellow of the College in 1991.
The Ho, Leung, Ho and Lee scheme was transformed
from a studentship to a scholarship scheme in 1989, and
awards continued to be made well into the 2000s. To date,
30 students from Hong Kong have benefitted from the
scheme.
Several of the Ho, Leung, Ho and Lee scholars contributed to
the China Centre appeal. A new seminar room in the building
was named for them.
Wendy Li at the opening of the Dickson Poon China Centre Building.
5
A New Space for
Chinese Art in Oxford
by Shelagh Vainker, Associate Professsor of Chinese Art and Curator of Chinese Art, Fellow at St Hugh’s
Robe for a Daoist
priest, silk with silk and
gold thread embroidery,
Qing dynasty (16441911). Ht. 153.5cm,
w. 174 cm. Given by
Barden N. and Flavia
M. Gale (née Morrison,
Modern Languages,
1966).
The Dickson Poon University of Oxford
China Centre Building is innovative in its
concept of housing academics from a
wide range of disciplines within a single,
area-focussed centre; it is also distinctive
in combining University and College use
within a single building and outstanding in
having a design that incorporates a suite
of generously proportioned display cases
for works of art.
The cases, all full-height, are situated in the China Centre
entrance and in the adjacent atrium – where a single vitrine
occupies a whole wall – and on the floor below by the
lecture theatre. They are filled with silk, gold, jade, porcelain
and lacquer of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)
dynasties, all given or lent by supporters of the China
Centre and St Hugh’s. The most vibrant are the silks, and
in particular the 19th-century Daoist priest’s robe displayed
6
in the China Centre entrance (above). This floor-length
vestment is designed to be viewed when the wearer is
standing with arms outstretched and his back turned to the
worshippers, thus providing an impressive ritual spectacle
and a generous field for the ornament of suns, moons,
auspicious motifs and divinatory Trigrams, all embroidered
in coloured silks and gold threads on a shiny silk satin
ground. The robe was presented to St Hugh’s by Flavia and
Barden Gale.
Displayed opposite the robe is a group of seventeen
gold belt plaques worked with designs of blossoms,
magpies, ducks and lotus that function as homonyms for
happiness, prosperity and success. They date from around
the 16th century and are on loan from the Mengdiexuan
Collection , one of the most comprehensive assemblages
of ancient Chinese gold in private hands. Lacquer, jade,
porcelain and works on paper have also been lent by
collectors in Hong Kong, with the ceramics comprising
a group that represents every reign period and most of
the decorative techniques current in the Qing dynasty
(1644-1911) (right). Elsewhere in the building, in corridors
where the light levels are lower, numerous calligraphy and
landscape scrolls hang on the walls, and the Song historians
are privileged to see 11th‑century texts in 18th-century
brushwork each time they step out of the office (illustrated
over page).
Court robe, silk with
gold threads, Qing
dynasty (1644-1911).
Ht 152 cm, w. 165
cm. Donated by Barden
N. and Flavia M. Gale
(née Morrison, Modern
Languages, 1966).
Above: Porcelain baluster vase with underglaze blue
decoration, Qing dynasty, mark of Chenghua (r.1465-87)
but Kangxi (r.1662-1722) period. Ht. 44.0 cm. On loan
from the T.L. and Barbara Yang, Trevor and Dominica
Yang Collection.
Left: Lacquer box carved with decoration of phoenix among
peonies, Qing dynasty (1644-1911). D. 19.0 cm. Lent by
Christopher Mok.
7
Above: Group of
seventeen gold belt
plaques, AD 15001700. Max. l. 9.3
cm. On loan from
the Mengdiexuan
Collection.
Above & below: Calligraphy by Wang Menglou (1730-1802), ink on paper, ht. 173
cm. On loan from the T.L. and Barbara Yang, Trevor and Dominica Yang Collection.
Right: Lui Shou-Kwaw
(1919-1975) Lotus
1964. Ink and colours
on paper Ht. 179.5
cm.
8
F EA TU RE THE NE W CHINA CE NTRE BUI LD I NG
Fine Chinese objects have, of course, been owned and
displayed by the University since the 17th century: the
collection Elias Ashmole acquired from the Tradescants
and presented to Oxford in 1683 included textiles,
stone sculptures and ceramics, while John Selden’s 1620s
map of the Ming empire is one of the treasures of the
Bodleian (seldenmap.bodleian.ox.ac.uk). The Bodleian
and the Ashmolean have both recently undergone major
redevelopments that have provided new spaces for and
prompted new thinking about the display of precious
artefacts. In the Ashmolean, the Chinese collections are
presented for the widest possible audience, and chiefly
according to the connections they
demonstrate with other cultures.
Through the new University
Engagement Programme
and Ashmolean Faculty
Fellows’ scheme, the
museum’s holdings
are increasingly
incorporated
into university
teaching, both
in the galleries
and the study rooms. The works of art in the China Centre
will necessarily be viewed by fewer people but are already
ensuring an awareness of material culture and visual arts
among all who visit, study or teach there. This aspect of
the China Centre’s reach is set to extend with the creation
of a new post in Chinese Archaeology, which is moreover
associated with the College. The Peter Moores Associate
Professorship in Chinese Archaeology includes lecturing each
year at Compton Verney, the 18th-century house and park
now run as a museum by the Peter Moores Foundation,
and
also advising on their very fine collection
of early Chinese bronzes . Dr Anke
Hein, currently of Ludwigs-Miximilian
Universitat Munchen, will take up the
Associate Professorship in January 2016
and become a Fellow of St Hugh’s.
Right: Jade fish, Qing
dynasty (1644-1911).
Ht. 20.0 cm.
Lent by Edwin Mok.
9
The University of Oxford
Dickson Poon China Centre Building
by Professor Rana Mitter, Deutsche Bank Director of the University of Oxford China Centre
In Michaelmas Term of 2014, the China Centre began an
intellectual and cultural adventure shared between one of the
globe’s greatest universities and the wider world of Chinese
society and culture. During the first few weeks, we met
policymakers, media figures, and above all, thinkers: scholars
who are rethinking what China has meant over three thousand
years, and what it will mean for decades to come. Students,
faculty and visiting scholars sit at the heart of a conversation
that has just started in Europe’s largest and finest centre for the
study of China, housed in the magnificent Dickson Poon Building.
Sir Dickson Poon
CBE, educational
philanthropist and
businessman, after
whom the building
is named, and the
Principal.
One of China’s best-known television
hosts, Yang Rui of CCTV’s Dialogue,
opened our term with a talk on the
geopolitics of East Asia. In a lively
question and answer session he fielded
questions from students and faculty
about a political and media environment
in China that is very different from that
in the west. Meanwhile, from the other
direction, we welcomed Orville Schell,
former dean of the School of Journalism
at the University of California, Berkeley,
now Arthur Ross Director of the Center
on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society in
New York. Most recently Professor Schell
accompanied former US president Jimmy
Carter to China, just one of a number of trips he has taken
to act as an expert guide for top US leaders. At Oxford,
he spoke to us about the need to reset the often tense
relationship between the US and China.
Chinese history was in the spotlight in November as we
hosted a workshop on ‘New Approaches to Twentieth-Century
History: China and Britain’. Keynote speaker was distinguished
historian Lu Fang-shang, and the cream of Britain’s young
historians of China attended from institutions around the UK
including Cambridge, London, Edinburgh and Leicester.
We were honoured by the visit in January to the Centre of
Barbara Woodward CMG OBE, the new British Ambassador
to China, prior to her taking up her post. During her visit,
the Ambassador was briefed by a group of the Centre’s
social scientists working on fields from China’s geopolitical
behaviour to social change in the countryside to the changing
media landscape. Later in the term, we hosted visits from
other FCO officials and their Chinese guests, including
delegations working on banking and on minority issues in
China. We are pleased to be broadening and deepening
our involvement with those who work on China outside the
academy, as we place the Centre’s expertise at the service of
the public sphere.
The China Centre has become a focus for students to start
their own groups researching China. One such group is
10
CHEW (China Health and Environmental Workshops), a
graduate student driven seminar that meets at the Centre
to debate issues to do with China’s environmental situation,
one of the most important issues of today. Future studentrun events will include a major graduate student conference
on Chinese studies.
We were particularly delighted by the week-long residency
of two of the world’s most prominent social scientists of
China. Professor Jean Oi (戴慕珍), William Haas Professor
in Chinese Politics at Stanford University;), spoke on ‘The
Costs of Political Connections: Corporate Restructuring and Tax
Payment in China’. Professor Andrew G. Walder (Denise
O’Leary & Kent Thiry Professor, School of Humanities and
Sciences at Stanford University) addressed the topic of
‘Rebellion and Repression in China, 1966-1971’. Professors
Oi and Walder took time to interact with students and
academic staff over the course of their visit, taking advantage
of their longer stay to make deeper connections than a oneday seminar can usually achieve. We hope that this will mark
the first of many residencies by major scholars of China from
around the world.
Faculty and students continue to work in the superb new
classrooms in the Dickson Poon Building and classes on
China range from the most ancient philosophy to the
most cutting edge social sciences. This year, the prestigious
Master’s courses on contemporary China, taught from the
Centre, found themselves heavily oversubscribed as their
popularity rises year on year. Meanwhile, the KB Chen
China Library, housed in the basement of the Dickson Poon
Building, reports that the number of readers per term has
doubled in comparison with the same time last year in
the old location, a sign that its excellent facilities and calm
atmosphere are drawing in students not previously engaging
with the study of China.
The building up of the human side of the Centre continues
to develop. This term we made two major appointments.
A new Associate Professor in the Anthropology of China,
Matthew Erie, will join the group in autumn 2014 (replacing
Prof Frank Pieke, who departed in 2011). An exciting
development was the appointment of Dr Anke Hein to
the new Peter Moores Associate Professorship of Chinese
Archaeology, with a Fellowship at St Hugh’s College. This
new post, made possible in large part by the generosity of
the Peter Moores foundation, shows the possibilities for
opening up new fields of study that are facilitated by the
Centre.
Elsewhere, the Centre’s academics have been disseminating
their research through the media. Recently, I have been in
China filming The Longest War: China’s World War II, a
television documentary for the History Channel based on
my recent book Forgotten Ally, which has been broadcast in
summer 2015 to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the
ending of the Second World War in Asia.
© John Cairns
11
Wordsworth Tea Room
by Tara Mcsweeney, Head Chef of the Wordsworth Tea Room
The Wordsworth Tea Room opened as part of the Dickson Poon
University of Oxford China Centre Building in October 2014, and
has been building up a loyal group of regular customers since then.
The room has also quickly become an important social space in
the College for members of the Senior, Middle and Junior Common
Rooms to mingle, study and relax. It contains the donor board listing
the names of all alumni who generously supported the project.
Tara Mcsweeney, the St Hugh’s chef who took on responsibility for
the Tea Room from the start, told us a little more about this exciting
project. During term, the Wordsworth Tea Room is open Monday to
Friday, 9.30am to 4.30pm, to students, staff, alumni and members of
the public.
How is the Wordsworth Tea Room different from the
College’s Dining Hall?
When I was asked to move from the main Dining Hall, I
instantly knew this would be a new and exciting project,
because there is no team of chefs working together. It’s on a
much smaller scale, so I’m the only chef here, but it means I
get a new, beautiful kitchen to myself. I have loved the more
intimate atmosphere and working closely with the other
members of staff here!
Who usually visits the Wordsworth Tea Room?
At the start, we had mainly the graduate students who live
in the China Centre Building, but this has now extended to
staff members and JCR students. The Finance Office staff
visit us most weeks, and we are very busy at lunch, especially
out of regular term times. We have also hosted events like
the Chinese New Year celebrations.
12
What kind of cuisine is available at the Wordsworth
Tea Room?
We started out with Chinese dishes only, but we have now
diversified our range considerably. I am French-trained, so
I’m enjoying this opportunity! I cook in small batches of 30100 portions, which means I can try different recipes.
Will you tell me a bit more about the ingredients you
use, and how the Wordsworth Tea Room has been
received?
Most of our ingredients are sourced locally from Osney,
and we always seek out fresh, organic produce. Our hot
drinks, all of which are Fairtrade and Organic, have been an
attraction for many of our patrons, who will now regularly
come here for their afternoon tea or coffee. We have had
some fantastic feedback so far, and I’ve been pleasantly
surprised by how much we have improved in this short
space of time.
Who makes up the team at the Wordsworth Tea
Room?
There are five of us in total. Antonio, who is new to the
College; Giuseppe, who moved across with me from the
Dining Hall; Manny, our new pastry chef whose chocolate
brownie is a daily feature on the menu and incredibly
popular; and a kitchen porter. We all look forward to
welcoming more of our alumni to the Wordsworth Tea
Room in coming months!
Accommodation
by Laure Bonfils (Engineering Science DPhil, 2013)
Tell me a bit about yourself. What did you do before
coming to Oxford, and what do you study here at the
moment?
I am a second year DPhil student in Engineering Science.
I’m in the Solid Mechanics Group of my Department and I
am working on the characterisation of the high strain rate
deformation behaviour of Titanium alloys at near-transus
temperature in collaboration with Rolls-Royce (my research
sponsor).
Before coming to Oxford, I did my undergraduate studies
in Physics and Chemistry (I did what is called in France a
“Prépa Maths sup - Maths spé”) in Paris. Then I did a Master
of Engineering in Paris followed by a Master of Science in
Chicago.
Apart from studying for your degree, what do you do
in your spare time?
I am part of the Oxford University Women’s Lightweight
Rowing Club and I am the MCR Sports Rep.
What do you enjoy the most about being at St Hugh’s?
I like the quiet atmosphere when you are inside the college
with the different floral gardens as well as the fact that the
MCR is in a separate house with its own garden.
© John Cairns
An important addition for St Hugh’s are the 63 high
quality en-suite bedrooms we are able to offer to
graduate students, and, out of term, to our bed and
breakfast guests. Each room has shared kitchen
facilities and we have one self-contained studio. The
building is split into two wings: The Andrew Dilnot
Wing and The Wolfson Foundation Wing. There are
two lifts in the building accessing all levels. On the ground floor of
the building is the Wordsworth Tea Room, which is open 9.30am 4.30pm during term time for anyone wishing to purchase additional
breakfast, lunch or snacks. Laure Bonfils tells us what it is like to live
there.
David Morley, Architect of the Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre
Building, showing visitors one of the new study bedrooms.
In your time here as a graduate student, where have
you lived, and how did you find it?
Last summer, waiting for the Dickson Poon Building to be
completed, I lived in other parts of St Hugh’s: 89 Banbury
Road and in one of the undergraduate accommodation
buildings (Wolfson). I found both of them quite old and
damaged. The last one had a very limited (in terms of both
space and equipment) kitchen. As a graduate student, I
wouldn’t have liked living in one of them for a whole year.
You moved into the University of Oxford Dickson
Poon China Centre Building shortly after it was
completed. How does the accommodation here
compare to other parts of College?
The Dickson Poon Building is much more modern, functional
and adapted to graduate students (big kitchen fully equipped
and en-suite rooms).
Tell me a bit more about the atmosphere of the
building – it must be quite different given the mix of
student accommodation, with China Centre and public
spaces?
© Galliford Try
I find the building very convivial and well designed. The big
kitchens allow the students living in the same corridor to
gather and spend some quality time all together. The mix
of student accommodation with the China Centre Library,
office spaces and the Wordsworth Tea Room brings a nice
atmosphere making the area around the building lively most
of the day.
For September we are running a special offer to Alumni. Normally £96 per night, you can enjoy St Hugh’s and all
that Oxford has to offer for £60 per night staying in the China Centre Building. For bookings please contact our
Accommodation Manager, Magdalena Robinson, on 01865 274907 or email accommodation.manager@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk
13
Larkin letter discovered
by Professor Peter D McDonald, Tutorial Fellow in English at St Hugh’s
Published with permission from the Society of Authors
College recently discovered a rare and important document in its safe: Philip Larkin’s letter to Rachel Trickett,
dated 10 October 1968, declining to be nominated for the Oxford Professorship of Poetry. The letter is
significant because, as a recent find, it has never been published and it contains, unusually for Larkin, a fulsome
justification of his refusal to accept this important nomination. It was especially newsworthy in a year that saw the
appointment of a new Oxford Professor of Poetry, Simon Armitage.
14
F EA TU RE LARKIN LE TTE R DIS C OVER ED
His subsequent letter, blocking Charles Monteith’s attempt to
nominate him again in 1973, is relatively brief and much more dutiful
(see Thwaite’s Selected Letters). Five years earlier, he was writing to
someone he knew well and with whom he had much in common.
Trickett (1923-1999) was a year younger than Larkin (1922-1985),
both studied English at Oxford during the war—Larkin from 1940 to
1943, Trickett from 1942 to 1945—and both had connections to Hull.
Trickett taught there in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and Larkin took
up the University Librarianship in 1955.
Larkin gives three reasons for his refusal, the third of which is the
most curious. It is really a self-cancelling meta-reason: ‘perhaps if one
says no one should say it not only quickly but with the minimum of
self-justification’. While it is true that he did give his other two reasons
‘quickly’—he allowed himself ‘a few minutes day-dreaming’ before
replying to Trickett’s letter of 8 October—he did not do so with ‘the
minimum of self-justification’. He explained, first, that he was ‘unfitted’
for lecturing because he ‘hated it’ and because he was neither an
academic nor a poet-theoretician. This is broadly true, though his prose
wasn’t just ‘hack-journalism’. A more ‘abstract’ Larkinesque poetics can
be distilled from collections like Required Writing (1983). Think only
of his claim that modernist poets indulge in ‘irresponsible exploitations
of technique in contradiction of human life as we know it’ (297).
Debatable though it is, this generalised observation sheds light on his
idea of his own poems as ‘cries wrung from me by what I believe Gide
calls the frightful contact with hideous reality’. His second reason, which
says more about his social than his poetic persona, seems once again
witty and self-deprecating, but as Andrew Motion’s 1994 biography
shows, his vision of ‘hell on earth’—‘a literary party’ with ‘a lot of
sherry-drill with important people’—was clearly heartfelt.
‘The Trickett letter provides an illuminating context for (among others)
‘Vers de Société’ and ‘Poem about Oxford’ not as testaments to
Larkin’s attitudes but as poems.’ Discuss.
Professor Peter
D McDonald
Tutorial Fellow
in English
15
Leverhulme Trust Grant
by Professor Elizabeth Eva Leach (Music, 1995), Fellow and Tutor in Music at St Hugh’s
narrative seems different from the courtly materials that
precede it, it is a work that is often copied into books with
music, and suggests that music plays a large role in medieval
thinking about the end of the world.
The funding from the grant also covers the complete highquality digitization of the manuscript (currently only selected
folios appear online in fairly low-quality images), which
will then be freely available online. I aim to blog about my
findings as I go along (http://eeleach.wordpress.com/blog/).
In addition there are plans for a performance workshop
for the debate songs in the manuscript. Ultimately I hope
to write a monograph on Douce 308 that will reflect on
the continuities and changes in musical culture around the
year 1300.
C robardel
C chapelet
Professor Elizabeth Leach (Music, 1995), Fellow in Music at
St Hugh’s, has been awarded a Major Research Fellowship by
the Leverhulme Trust to work on a project provisionally called
‘Douce 308 and the contexts of vernacular song c.1300’.
Douce 308 is the shelfmark of a manuscript now in the
Bodleian library, a luxury book made of fine parchment (animal
skin) and originally copied by hand in Metz in the early years of
the fourteenth century.
This large and complicated source preserves songs and
literary works exclusively in French, but was copied at a
linguistic meeting point between France and the Empire
(that is, the German-speaking lands to the East of the Rhine).
I plan to study the book as a whole, looking to understand
why its particular contents have been put together, and what
the other items in the book might tell us about the 516 song
texts that it transmits. Because there is no musical notation
musicologists have mainly ignored Douce 308, but its other
ostensibly non-musical contents and its overall planning in
fact give more contextualizing information for the musical
repertoire than other, better-known sources. I am convinced
that Douce 308 is a uniquely telling document, provided we
can address it with the right kinds of questions. For us, the
songs of late-medieval repertories in Europe have become
radically separated from their social contexts. I would argue
that the one secure material context that a given medieval
song retains is the codex in which it is copied. Through
a detailed study of a single unique manuscript, I hope to
show how the manuscript context can point to the social
meanings, reception, and performative use of song within
the culture that copied and used the manuscript.
The courtly tournament of Chauvency, which is followed
by Douce 308’s 516 song texts, is refracted through an
eschatological lens in the final item in the manuscript, Huon
de Méry’s Tournament of Antichrist. While this ‘end-of-days’
16
D Balettes miniature
COL L EGE A ND A L U M NI NEW S
Writing Brecht
by Dr Tom Kuhn, Faculty Lecturer in German and Fellow of St Hugh’s
Brecht reading in London, 1936
I have been the lead editor of the main Englishlanguage edition of the works of the great
German dramatist Bertolt Brecht since 2002.
You might think that was a relatively relaxed
position. Brecht died in 1956; it would be fair
to assume that all his major works have long
since appeared in English; and everyone knows
The Threepenny Opera, Life of Galileo, Mother
Courage… But Brecht was extraordinarily
prolific and varied in his output, and there is,
perhaps shockingly, still plenty more that has
never been published in English: no great plays,
it is true, but hundreds of poems and several
major prose and theoretical works.
Amongst the volumes that are planned in the coming years,
there is an unfinished (but still substantial) historical novel,
The Business Affairs of Mr Julius Caesar, a collection of short
prose sketches and aphorisms with a Chinese flavour, Me-Ti,
a volume of fragmentary dramatic projects (some quite
finished enough to furnish a full play), and a new Collected
Poems. English is such an important global language, and
Brecht is said to be, worldwide, the second most performed
playwright after Shakespeare; besides, his work is important
for many fields apart from just the theatre: modernist poetry,
critical theory, film studies, cultural history.
In 2013 I was lucky enough to land a major research grant
from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to support
an international project. Specialist colleagues from around the
UK, Ireland, Australia, the US and Germany are all lending
a hand. As well as extending and developing the corpus of
Brecht’s works in English, the project proposes a parallel
critical appraisal of the transmission of Brecht’s writings and
ideas and a historical assessment of the reception of Brecht
in the English-speaking world. The aspiration is to advance
our understanding of the ways in which foreign literatures in
general and across the full range of genres, negotiate cultural
difference.
It has been quite a whirlwind, directing such a large project.
Last year saw the publication of new editions of Brecht’s
theoretical writings, in two companion volumes, Brecht
on Theatre and Brecht on Performance, and also a teaser
for the forthcoming Collected Poems: Bertolt Brecht. Love
Poems (which I am delighted to say was shortlisted for
the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation). Next year will
see, as well as two further volumes of original writings, a
major international conference, hosted at St Hugh’s, of the
International Brecht Society (end of June 2016). Alongside
the academic programme there will be public cultural events.
The plans include: a residency in Oxford for the director
Di Trevis, who will mentor a student production of one of
those unfinished dramatic projects; newly commissioned
musical settings of Brecht poems, to be sung by an amazing
mezzo-soprano, Lore Lixenberg; the playwrights Mark
Ravenhill and Tony Kushner talking about their relationship
with Brecht; film showings, a cabaret performance, an
exhibition at the Bodleian, and so on.
In fact performance events and outreach activities have been
a central part of the project from the beginning. As well as
talking to schools and colleges and doing events at theatres
in the context of productions, I and other members of the
team have staged special poetry readings in Oxford, London
(King’s Place and Southbank), Birmingham Rep., Manchester
University, and so on. The next scheduled event is at the
Birmingham Literature Festival in October: a performance of
poetry and other texts about Brecht’s relationship with one
of his long-term collaborators, Margarete Steffin, who died
of TB in Moscow in 1941. Joining me for this is the Oxford
poet and translator, David Constantine, who is an important
contributor to the poetry side of the project.
If you are interested in the research project and all these
activities, please visit the project website at
http://brecht.mml.ox.ac.uk/.
17
The Google DeepMind Research Centre
by Professor Phil Blunsom, Associate Professor EPSRC, Early Career Fellow and Tutorial Fellow
at St Hugh’s
Professor Phil Blunsom, Associate Professor
and Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science at
St Hugh’s, has recently become part of the
Google DeepMind research centre. Prior to
joining College, Professor Blunsom worked in
the School of Informatics at the University of
Edinburgh, which he joined after completing
his PhD at the University of Melbourne. We
asked Professor Blunsom to share with us how he
became involved with the Google Artificial Intelligence
research, and what this entails at the moment.
I am part of the Computational Linguistics and Machine
Learning research groups in the Department of Computer
Science. We build computational models of language with
the dual aims of understanding and implementing natural
language systems. Linguistics, Philosophy, and Computer
Science have long shared common ground in their study of
logical inference, but recently Computational Linguists have
shifted to place more emphasis on understanding language
through probabilistic inference. In this view we see language
learning and production as inferring probability distributions
over the meaning of utterances and their impact on the
state of the world. A consequence of this practical and
implementable approach to natural language processing is
the proliferation of language technologies now available on
the web, e.g. search engines, automatic language translation,
and personal assistants.
Last year I founded a start-up with other
members of my research group with the
aim of both furthering and exploiting our
research on natural language understanding.
Despite the early stage of our ideas, we were
surprised to find many investors willing to
fund our venture. In fact some wanted to
go further and, after an intense period of
negotiations, Google convinced us to sell
up and join their DeepMind research centre
in London. This decision was helped by a
generous donation from Google to fund graduate students
in Oxford. The end result is that I now divide my time
between managing my group of five graduate students in
Oxford and a rapidly growing research group at Google
DeepMind in London.
Google DeepMind is a quasi-autonomous branch of Google
that is focussed on researching and building Artificial General
Intelligence. This is a very long term project made possible
by the considerable resources that Google can bring to bear.
As the most obvious manifestation of human intelligence,
understanding language is core to work on Artificial General
Intelligence. At DeepMind my group contributes our
research on natural language processing to this long term
goal. We are currently focussed on building algorithms that
are able to read and comprehend documents such that they
can answer questions and engage in short dialogues. Where
we differ from previous approaches is by representing and
reasoning about language in high dimensional vector spaces,
rather than traditional approaches employing symbolic
logics. This essentially converts language into numbers, and
computers are much better at manipulating numbers than
ambiguous human utterances.
For researchers in Artificial Intelligence it is currently a
very exciting time, with rapid advances in the underlying
technologies and wealthy companies willing to invest heavily
in our research. However the biggest impediment to
academic and industry research in AI in the United Kingdom
is a lack of suitably qualified graduates. Much work remains
to be done to inspire, and fund, students to pursue graduate
research so that the UK can take a leading role in this area.
You can learn more about Google DeepMind in the
following short video from Nature Publications: https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=xN1d3qHMIEQ
The first public work from my Google DeepMind group
is described in a paper we recently posted on the arXiv
pre‑print service: http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.03340
18
New appointment
Professor Horst Eidenmüller
Freshfields Chair for Commercial Law and Professorial Fellow at St Hugh’s
I joined St Hugh’s this January,
coming from Germany where
I held the Chair for Private
Law, German, European and
International Company Law at
Munich University from 2003
to 2015. Prior to that, I taught
at the University of Münster as
a Law Professor from 1999 to
2003. Alongside my appointment at St Hugh’s, I joined
the Oxford Law Faculty as the Freshfields Chair for
Commercial Law. I had already been affiliated with the
Faculty as a Visiting Professor for Corporate Insolvency
Law since 2010, and I have held other visiting
positions at Cambridge (2007), Harvard (2011), NYU
(2013 and 2015) and Stanford (2014). From 2008
to 2009, I was a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced
Study in Berlin. I am a Research Associate of the
European Corporate Governance Institute (since 2009)
and a Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of
Sciences and Humanities (since 2008).
My main research areas are contract law, company
and insolvency law, and alternative dispute resolution.
Methodologically, I approach regulatory problems in these
fields by analysing the economic effects of legal rules and
scrutinising their efficiency. I also apply empirical methods
to the study of commercial law issues, in particular with
regard to the effects of regulatory competition. Topics that
I have researched in depth include business-to-business
(B2B) contracts, consumer protection tools, out-of-court
and court-supervised business restructurings, European
corporate and insolvency law, and negotiation management
and mediation concepts. My scholarship in the latter field is
informed by an extensive mediation and arbitration practice
relating to (international) commercial conflicts.
In Oxford, the focus of my scholarship will shift slightly from
company to commercial law, in line with the professorship
that I have taken up. Further, the comparative aspect of
my work will become even more important. As a result,
European, international and comparative commercial law
and commercial dispute resolution will figure prominently
in my research projects in the years to come. That said,
though, the next academic year will be devoted to finishing
a book on ‘European and Comparative Company, Financial
Markets, and Insolvency Law’ to be published by OUP. The
line between company and commercial law is, in any case,
not easy to draw (the Corporate Insolvency Law course
being a good example) and both disciplines benefit from an
integrated perspective on the “inside” and the “outside” of a
particular problem.
I feel very fortunate to have been appointed to a fellowship
at St Hugh’s. For one, I share a lot of common interests
with my co-fellows in Law (Glen, Joshua and Mike). It is also
because of the ‘light touch’ atmosphere of the College that, I
believe, weighs less heavily on the shoulders of a newcomer,
giving him or her space to breathe and, hopefully, flourish.
Last but not least, the College is a very welcoming and
friendly place, making everybody feel immediately at home.
My wife Kathrin and our two little kids Luise and Felix are
extremely grateful for the support we received from Elish,
Vicki and all other fellows and staff when Felix had an
accident upon his arrival in Oxford, losing almost all his front
teeth (elevating him to ‘warrior status’, as Peter Mitchell
aptly described it). One could not hope for a warmer, more
empathetic and supportive reaction.
St Hugh’s is also a great place for the former long-distance
track runner that I was in the 1980s and the senior hobby
athlete I now am, being located in the vicinity of great
training routes in North Oxford (plus there is the College
gym with a decent treadmill). Things look less promising
with respect to mountains – I was born in the Alps and
still work as a mountain guide from time to time. The Peak
District and the Highlands are not quite in the backyard. So
there may be a temptation to visit St. Johann in Tirol at least
for a weekend to feel the rocks or smell the snow, when
bouldering in Iffley or the Brookes climbing wall don’t appeal
too much. That should not happen often though. It is a great
pleasure to be here with you!
Hearts and Minds appeal
Writer Jane Robinson has been commissioned to
write a major social history, Hearts and Minds, to
mark the centenary of Votes for Women in 2018.
This book – her tenth – will be based on first-hand
accounts of those involved, including tens of thousands
of women (and men) who were not suffragettes but
suffragists. They campaigned without violence, and in
1913 accomplished an astonishing six-week march
from all points around the UK to London. Titled ladies
marched with colliery girls; academics with housewives;
grandfathers with schoolgirls: it was the greatest
mass-demonstration the country had ever seen. Yet
now, it’s all but forgotten. Was anyone in your family a
suffragette or a suffragist? If so, Jane would be delighted
to hear from you on jane@jane-robinson.com or
c/o David Higham Associates, 7th Floor, Waverley
House, 7-12 Noel Street, London W1F 8GQ.
19
Tackling Ebola
by Luke Kane (Biological Sciences, 2002)
Full Circle
Intro
In the summer before my interview at St Hugh’s, I was
introduced to the Ebola virus in a popular science book
called Virus X: Tracking the New Killer Plagues. I remember
trying to impress Dr John Iles with my thoughts on virus
evolution and virulence in the human host but somehow
ended up in a less exciting, rambling monologue on the
human kidney.
I’ve now gone full circle back to the Ebola Virus. After an
exciting degree in Biological Sciences (ask me anything
about Indonesian sea-urchins), and five long years at medical
school, I am writing this from a tent in Sierra Leone about
to start a night-shift caring for patients suffering from this
overwhelming virus.
Moyamba Ebola Treatment Centre
My place of work, the Moyamba Ebola Treatment Centre,
located four-hours’ drive from Freetown, is a joint venture
between numerous international NGOs. It is a vast whitetented complex built by The Corps of Royal Engineers
and funded through DFID (Department for International
Development). We live in a basecamp of tents on cleared
rainforest - land donated by one of the local chiefs. I enjoy
sending lots of dramatic emails home from my “small jungle
tent” but actually the facilities are very comfortable with
three hot meals per day and warm showers. Outrageous
luxuries in a country that has been ravaged by war and
poverty.
Ebola
Ebola is a rare, viral haemorrhagic fever. Discovered in 1976,
it causes sporadic outbreaks across Central and Eastern
Africa but these are usually limited in scale. The current
outbreak is of unprecedented size. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone have borne the brunt of case numbers; needless to
say, health infrastructure in this region is severely lacking and
the international response very late in terms of mobilisation.
One of the many cruel facts about Ebola is that health
workers are one of the first groups to be exposed which
then further weakens efforts to treat and contain the
virus. All of the Sierra Leonean staff in the centre know
colleagues that died of Ebola. They also work, tirelessly,
with the knowledge that if they are infected they will stay in
Sierra Leone whilst expatriate staff would be evacuated to
Europe. I am not one for hyperbole, but the stories you hear
about their family, friends and co-workers are horrific and
devastating; I can’t begin to fathom how they continue to
work and care for patients with Ebola when they have seen
what the virus is capable of.
Dr Luke Kane and Ms Esther Moody – “I am about to enter the ‘Red Zone’ for
a ward round up.”
20
People do survive Ebola. Today I am starting my shift with
a young medical student who is working as a nurse whilst
his degree is on an Ebola-hiatus. He was left for dead on
an Ebola ward; his viral load was very high and he had
numerous haemorrhagic symptoms - both poor prognostic
signs. He survived; but many in his family did not.
My Colleagues
Despite the personal horrors experienced by the patients
on the ward right now, I am looking forward to my shift. I
work with an exhilarating group of Sierra Leonean nurses,
clinical officers and hygiene specialists. Every single shift, I
am inspired by their compassion, humility and joie de vivre
despite the apocalyptic turmoil of the past year.
The Patients
Sadly, we often see family groups coming to the centre
together. Often someone arrives alone, then the rest of
their sick family follow. Traditional burial practices, incredibly
important in West Africa, prove to be a highly efficient mode
for Ebola to spread. Often we have several family members
all in one ward. Sometimes, only one survives having
watched everyone else pass away.
Dr Luke Kane and
nursing colleagues.
There is no specific treatment for Ebola. What we do is give
fluids intravenously, start aggressive antibiotic treatment of
superimposed bacterial infections and treat malaria. Ebola is
painful and distressing; painkillers and muscle relaxants can
help, as can simple interventions like wiping the blood out
of someone’s mouth and holding their hand in their last few
hours.
One of the nurses told me yesterday that she had started
the formal adoption process of two ‘Ebola orphans’ whose
mother we admitted a few weeks ago. I am humbled by
my colleagues. To add to the demands of their work, many
are stigmatised by their families and villages. In defiance of
this, they are passionate and optimistic about the future of
Sierra Leone. My copy of the Oxford Clinical Handbook of
Tropical Medicine has been devoured by the nurses; they are
desperate for knowledge and are hoping to be part of the
post-Ebola reconstruction of Sierra Leone’s health system.
How to Help
If you would like to donate a new or second-hand copy of
‘Where There is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook
for Africa’ or any other medical textbook then please email
me at lukejpkane@gmail.com. I am organising a shipment to
Moyamba, Sierra Leone, where they will be distributed to my
inspirational colleagues.
A recent breakthrough came to light in the results of a
trial investigating the effects of an Ebola vaccine in Guinea
during this outbreak. The vaccine was 100% effective when
administered immediately after contact with an infected person,
and gives renewed hope in the fight against Ebola.
21
At Least We Lived
by Emma Oxford (Modern Languages, 1970)
Published by Branksome Books www.atleastwelived.com
I was the first in my family to attend university when I went
up to St Hugh’s in 1970 to read Modern Languages. (I still
remember the green herringbone tweed midi-skirt that I wore
the day my father proudly deposited me and my trunk – I had
made the skirt myself, a money-saving habit that I kept up
throughout my student days). I didn’t know it then, but it strikes
me now that I am a member of a transitional generation of
women who made it to university: very few of our mothers had
attended college or pursued a career after marriage; at Oxford
in the early 1970s only one out of every five undergraduates
was female. But in 1974, the year that I graduated, the first
five men’s colleges opened their gates to women and the ratios
began to change dramatically.
A generation later, my two
daughters have collected their
degrees from top American
colleges where female students
are in a clear majority. But
each generation faces its own
challenges.
I realised that when I began
to research At Least We Lived,
the story of World War II
China and my parents’ wartime
romance there. Working on
the book I discovered how
my mother, Audrey Watson,
who was born nearly a century ago, had
overcome the limitations on women
of her generation. The lack of a college
education never prevented her from being
an intrepid traveller, a fine writer, an avid
reader and an astute observer of society.
I’ve had broader opportunities in the transitional generation,
but of course many challenges – of which writing a book
has been one of the most exhilarating. After Oxford I went
into public service on the fast track of the British civil service,
where I soon reached a level that was only 9% female. I had
married my Oxford boyfriend, Mike Elliott, a Worcester
College lawyer, and in 1986 we both had the chance to
work in America. Eventually the US became our home.
My career swerved off the fast track as we raised our two
daughters and moved around with Mike’s work. Despite the
obvious frustrations, I have enjoyed stitching together a life of
interesting part-time jobs with family and travel. When our
daughters were in their teens we had a shot at an adventure
on the other side of the world: a posting to Hong Kong.
Although I had studied European languages at St. Hugh’s,
Asia is the continent of my earliest memories – I grew up in
Malaysia – and the former British colony of Hong Kong has
special significance for my family.
22
My father, Max Oxford, a pilot and wartime intelligence
officer in the RAF, had settled there before the outbreak of
World War II. When Japan attacked the colony in December
1941 (on the same fateful day as Pearl Harbor) Max was
caught up in the battle, and narrowly escaped with his life
when the British surrendered Hong Kong to the Japanese on
Christmas Day. After my father made a hair-raising escape
into China, he served in the war capital, Chongqing. It was in
that remote Sichuan city high up the Yangtze River that he
met my mother, Audrey Watson, a spirited young redhead
with experience in Churchill’s secret service, the SOE, who
had travelled from England at the height of the war to work
for a senior British diplomat. Max and Audrey first laid eyes
on each other at a tea party given by China’s first lady, Mme.
Chiang Kai-shek, in late 1943. Barely six weeks later Max
proposed, and my parents married in a simple but joyful
ceremony where a cosmopolitan
crowd of diplomats, journalists and
spies caused ‘the death of another
lot of champagne’, as the wife of
the British Ambassador commented
ruefully.
When my parents were still alive,
they would occasionally talk about
their early lives, but I knew none of
the details at the time I moved to
Hong Kong. Now I was in the right
place at the right time to explore
the past. I unearthed a treasure
trove of letters and journals that
had survived the war and my
parents’ peregrinations around the
world, and these are at the heart
of the book. Soon after the conflict
was over Max brought his new
wife back to Hong Kong, where
they lived for six halcyon years. As a colonial wife (Max was
Deputy Director of Civil Aviation), Audrey (like millions of
other women who had done vital jobs in the war years)
gave up paid work to concentrate on being ‘a good wife’.
She herself saw this as her most important job, though she
also privately questioned whether being an ‘adjunct’ to her
husband was enough.
In At Least We Lived I’ve tried to evoke that distant time of
my parents – a world of receiving urgent news by telegram
and the merely important by letter; a world of taking sixmonth long ‘home leaves’; a world of dressing for dinner
even when eating at home alone. The pace of our lives is so
different, yet the human emotions that Max and Audrey’s
writing reveals are timeless: the heartbreak of loss, the search
for identity and security in an uncertain world, and above
all, the importance of love and friendship. I hope that their
experiences are a guide of sorts for their granddaughters’
generation in navigating today’s complex world.
Awards
Head of Music Partnerships,
Songkick
by Adam McIsaac (MBA, 2011)
© David Fisher
Songkick, which is a London-based concert listings
service, has been in the process of merging with
artist-led ticketing site Crowdsurge. The aim of
this merger has been to allow musicians more
control over their live music sales. Adam spoke
to us about his role at Songkick, which has a
community of around 10 million users.
Henry Chan receiving his Elizabeth Wordsworth Fellowship at St Hugh’s.
On 26 May Mr Henry Chan, accompanied by his wife Mrs
Joanna Chan, received the Elizabeth Wordsworth Fellowship
presented by the Principal at a ceremony attended
by Fellows, staff and Friends. The award was made in
recognition of his outstanding support for the China Centre,
naming the China Centre library after his late father, Mr KB
Chen.
What does your job entail?
As the Head of Music Partnerships, I’m charged with the
task of growing Songkick’s ticketing business to help make
it easier for music fans to discover and attend the shows
they love.
In the Queen’s New Year Honours, David Verey CBE,
who is an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh’s, was knighted for
services to arts and philanthropy as chair of the Art Fund.
On 12 June our alumna, Judith Portrait,
was awarded an OBE for charitable
services in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Judith (Classics, 1965) is a City solicitor
specialising in charity law and practice. She
was for many years a partner of a large
law firm, and in 1995 founded Portrait
Solicitors. She is a trustee of many of the Sainsbury Family
charities including the Gatsby Charitable Foundation trust.
I am also responsible for building and maintaining
relationships with various stakeholders across the live
music industry including international promoters, such
as AEG/Goldenvoice and Live Nation, or managers and
booking agents who represent some of the world’s biggest
superstars.
What is the most satisfying part of your job?
The most satisfying part of my job is working directly
with Songkick’s incredible product managers, developers
and designers to ensure our products and services are
constantly improving to make people’s lives better. We’re
all passionate music fans at Songkick so we know how
important it is to get tickets to your favourite artists’ show
- be it in London, Los Angeles or Tokyo.
At a ceremony on 20 June, the University recognised
the work of Ms Irene and Mr Victor Chu and Mr Trevor
and Mrs Dominica Yang by inviting them to become
Distinguished Friends of Oxford in a ceremony conducted by
the Vice Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton. Although
Mr Chu was unable to attend, the audience heard how
the voluntary work of the nominees had made a significant
difference to the success of the China Centre campaign and
St Hugh’s.
How has St Hugh’s helped you in your career?
I was fortunate to learn from my many classmates and
college mates about their home countries and how doing
business can differ slightly from one country to another.
This international exposure has helped me take a global
perspective with our business and has pushed me to learn
more about the live music industry across the globe.
Do you have any memories of College you would
like to share?
I remember travelling from St Hugh’s down to the Jericho
Tavern to see some live music. Closer to home, I fondly
recall getting into trouble at the College balls and bops,
and playing basketball on the St Hugh’s courts on a nice
spring day.
© David Fisher
Furthermore, I get to go to a lot of concerts so it’s pretty
rewarding to watch an artist perform when we know
we’ve helped them connect with their fans!
Looking ahead, in September
Mr Vincent and Mrs Cecilia Cheng,
who are also important donors to the
China Centre through the Verdant
Foundation, will be admitted to the
Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors.
This is one of the highest honours the University can
award and we hope it will be a day that Mr and Mrs Cheng
remember for years to come; it will be a proud day for St
Hugh’s. The donation from the Vervant Foundation named
the lecture theatre after Mr Cheng’s father and, importantly,
marked the completion of the capital campaign for the
building. As a further recognition of the importance of their
support and our warm relationship, Mrs Cecilia Cheng is to
become an Elizabeth Wordsworth Fellow, joining Mr Cheng
who was made a Wordsworth Fellow in May 2014.
23
News
1940
Award for our work on a process for
identifying preventable factors in all
child deaths in a population.’
Mrs Ruth Bidgood (nee Jones,
English)
Ruth writes: ‘I continue to write poems
and local history. My son Martin and I
have recently collaborated on a piece
of research which is shortly to appear
as an article in The Carmarthenshire
Antiquary. A new collection of poems
has been accepted by Cinnamon Press
(North Wales) for publication next
year.’
1954
Mrs Jennifer Wiggins (nee
Pulley, Zoology)
Jennifer writes: ‘I continue to live on
Long Island, New York with Colin.
After 27 years as a docent, I am now
a Trustee on the Board of the Planting
Fields Foundation which preserves
and interprets the Planting Fields
Arboretum State Historic Park in
Oyster Bay, New York’.
1960
Dr Gillian Sutherland (nee
Thomas, Modern History)
Gillian writes: ‘Cambridge University
Press is due to publish my book,
In Search of the New Woman: Middle
Class Women and Work in Britain 18701914 in Feb/March 2015. Some of the
material used comes from St Hugh’s
Archives.’
1968
Mrs Julia Boyd (nee Seiber,
Modern History)
1976
Reverend Jacqueline Embrey
(nee Robb, Mathematics)
made their annual visit – and will be
back in late June to delight the Folk
Club and other venues.
The Hungarian
Embroidery
Exhibition (from
my collection)
ran at the
Museum of
Cambridge
throughout
October. 2014
saw 2 Hungarian
visits, one to a Freiburg concert; 2015
will see Swiss and maybe Austrian too.’
1970
Mrs Jane Howard Griffiths
(nee Howard, English)
Jane writes: ‘In July, we gained a
new granddaughter, Grace Elizabeth
Mazarine Halsey. “Grandpa” David
Griffiths was at St John’s 1970-74.
Parents Susanna and Jim met in
Oxford and were married at the
Cotswold Lodge, Banbury Rd. I am
still doing supply work for Retirement
Security Ltd, and took part in a
promotional film in June for the charity
Self Management UK. On a sadder
note,many will have been shocked
and saddened by the passing of June
Bruton (English,1969). Visited several
art exhibitions with her, and her grasp
of the subject – plus many other areas
of knowledge – was phenomenal.’
1973
Ms Alyson Leslie (English)
Julia writes: ‘Cambridge Szeged Society
ran its annual programme of concerts
and after 3 years, achieved a choral
tour from Cambridge to Hungary
– with more to follow; possibly Nature
Tours, too. The return visit by Szeged
children’s folk musicians happens this
March. The Mentes Maskent Trio
24
Alison writes: ‘Most of my 2014 was
spent on the Independent Jersey
Care Inquiry, looking at decades of
historical abuse. The 1,200 mile weekly
commute continues into 2015. In the
past year I have also reviewed two
gang-related fatalities in north London
and am still working part-time at
University of Dundee where my team
has just won the 2015 Stephen Fry
Jackie writes: ‘On 1 September, 2015,
I took up the post of Moderator of
the United Reformed Church’s Mersey
Synod, which covers our churches in
Merseyside, the Wirral, Cheshire and
West Lancashire. My husband and I
have moved to Liverpool and we’re
enjoying exploring a new area.’
1978
Mrs Elizabeth Ann Saunders
(nee Harrison, Geography)
Ann writes: ‘I am engaged in a
fascinating role as HR Director
for Crown Agents (International
Development) alongside voluntary
role as Trustee for MAF International,
an NGO which supports a range
of NGOs and missions in accessing
places which are very isolated – so all
emerging economies. Celebrated 30
years of marriage to Tim (St Edmund
Hall, Geography), a church minister,
this year at St Hugh’s, where we had
our wedding reception too. Two of
our daughters went through Oxford
and the third is enjoying her time at
the LSE – two geographers and a
medic.’
1979
Professor Joanne Conaghan
(Law)
Joanne writes: ‘In August 2013, I left
the University of Kent where I had
worked for many years to assume a
position at the University of Bristol. In
August 2014, I became Head of the
Law School there. In addition, in late
2013, I published a monograph on Law
and Gender as part of the prestigious
OUP Clarendon Law series while in
October 2014, I finished serving my
term as Deputy-Chair of the Law subpanel for REF2014.’
1985
Dr Annie Southern (nee
Goslyn, English)
Annie writes: ‘I have
just had published
my book Careering
Teens: Guiding
Teenagers’ Career
Development
(2014).’
1986
Reverend Joanna Baxter
Fielding (nee Baxter,
Theology)
Joanna writes: ‘I have been living in
New Zealand for the last 10 years
where I am currently priest in charge
of 3 congregations on the Otago
Peninsula. I had a break from parish
work last year, returning to Oxford
from April – September 2014, with
husband David’s sabbatical. I am looking
forward to meeting up with old friends,
and hope for some opportunities
to extend chaplaincy skills in new
contexts, and do lots of bass and
treble viol playing. If you would like to
meet up, please contact me at joanna.
fielding@hotmail.com.’
1987
Mr Andrew Webb (Zoology)
Andrew writes: ‘I am now Chief
Commercial Officer at Countrywide
Farms in Evesham, after 25 years finally
putting my Zoology degree to some
use.’
St Gregory’s Catholic Church in South
Shields, followed by a reception in my
parents’ garden in Cleadon Village. We
live in Edinburgh, where I am director
of a digital and design agency called
Hookson.
Here is a photograph from my
wedding. This is me shown with two
fellow St Hugh’s alumni – Sam Varriale
(nee Fildes) and Andrea McCartney.
We all matriculated in 1990 – me in
PPE and the others in English.’
We were married in Australia in
January 2012 and currently live in
London. We both work as lawyers,
which makes for some interesting
arguments! Since graduating from
Oxford in Mathematics and Philosophy,
I converted to Law, qualified as a
Barrister and have been specialising in
Asylum Law since 2005. We plan to
relocate to Australia in the near future.’
1992
Mr Harris Irfan (Physics)
Mr Gavin Llewellyn (Law)
Harris writes: ‘In 2014, I published a
book called Heaven’s Bankers: Inside
the Hidden World of Islamic Finance.
It was published by Constable &
Robinson/Little Brown in the UK and
rest of the world, except the US and
Canada where it was published by
Overlook. The book has received
critical acclaim in the Financial Times,
Wall Street Journal, the Literary
Review, The Independent, The
Telegraph, The Islamic Globe and The
Huffington Post. I have also spoken
about the book and its themes on
Radio 4 (Start the Week), Radio
5 Live (Richard Bacon), BBC Asian
Network, World Finance, Sky News
(Murnaghan), CNN and BBC World
Service. On 18 February 2015, I spoke
at the Oxford Union on the subject
“Our Banking System is Broken”.’
Gavin writes: ‘I was appointed President
of the Intellectual Property Commission
of the Union Internationale des
Avocats (International Association of
Lawyers) at the UIA’s Annual Congress
in Florence, Italy in November 2014.
I am a senior associate in Stone King
LLP’s corporate and commercial
team specialising in intellectual
property. I speak regularly on IP law
at UIA conferences which promotes
professional excellence among the
world’s lawyers. The UIA comprises
over 2,000 lawyers from more than
110 countries. The IP Commission
arranges seminars at the Annual
Congress and during the year,
sometimes in conjunction with other
Commissions with an interest in IP.’
1991
Mr Jean-Benoit Louveaux
(Mathematics & Philosophy)
1990
1996
Mrs Rosanne Walker (nee
Allen, Educational Studies)
Rosie writes: ‘Samuel James Charles
Walker was born on August 23rd to
Dr John Walker and Mrs Rosanne
Walker (née Allen) and baptised in
St Peter’s Church, Stonyhurst.’
1998
Mrs Naomi Askins (PPE)
Dr Elizabeth Wharton
(Mathematics)
Elizabeth writes: ‘I have a daughter,
Elsie Juniper Rose, born on the
1st September 2014.’
Naomi writes: ‘I got married in August
2013 to Andy Horney, a landscape
gardener. The wedding took place at
Jean-Benoit writes: ‘Together with my
Australian wife Diane Mailer, we are
very pleased to announce the birth of
our twin son and daughter, William
Xavier Louveaux and Aurelia Eve
Louveaux, born on 26th August, 2014.
25
2000
2003
Mr Julian Aldridge (Earth
Sciences)
Mrs Rebecca Risbridger (nee
Ramsbottom, English)
Julian writes: ‘My
daughter is Emily
May Aldridge,
born on the 12th
February 2014,
weighing 7lb1oz.
My wife is Lyndsay Aldridge.’
Rebecca writes: ‘I
married Ben
Risbridger on 9
September 2014.
We had a
wonderful
wedding day and
it was followed
by a honeymoon in the beautiful Italian
Lakes. We are now living in
Farnborough, Hampshire. I am working
as a librarian in the House of Lords.
Ben works as a principal engineer for
Alexander Dennis in Guildford. I can
still be contacted at
becca_ramsbottom@hotmail.com.’
Dr Wojciech Jajdelski (Polish
Studies)
Wojciech writes: ‘I was admitted to the
Faculty of Advocates (Scottish Bar) on
11 July 2014.’
Mrs Louise Jones (nee
Clemenson, English)
Louise writes: ‘I married Capt. Gareth
Jones on 22nd February 2014, in
South Cerney, Gloucestershire. We
welcomed our first baby, Charlotte
Ellen Jones, on 27th January 2015.’
2001
The Honourable James True
(Classics)
James writes: ‘Illustrious alumni Heba
Ayoub (2001) and James True (2000)
were married in the Southwark
Registry Office in Camberwell, South
London on 25th October 2014, much
to the delight of all present. They were
joined on honeymoon in Egypt by both
sets of parents, before celebrating again
with a party on an island on the Nile.’
2004
Mrs Katherine Brownstein
(nee Bennett, Law)
Katherine writes: ‘Leo
and I would like to
announce the birth of a
baby girl, Nava Yael,
born on 22 November
2014, a sister for Amelie and Coby.’
2006
Miss Charlie Maydon (Law)
Charlie writes: ‘I am now a solicitor
in the Private Client department at
Macfarlanes LLP and I am engaged to
be married in the summer’.
2008
Mr Rakesh Kariholoo (MBA)
Miss Delyth Jewell (English)
Mrs Sarah Spikings (nee
Dixon, Mathematics)
26
Jason writes: ‘I will be marrying Sarah
Clarke (Matriculated at St. Hugh’s in
2007) on the 26th of September 2015.
I have been awarded the Fulbright
– Nursten Postgraduate Award in
Medical Studies by the US-UK Fulbright
Commission for 2015-16. I will be
studying a Master of Public Health
Degree at Harvard University. (http://
www.fulbright.org.uk/fulbright-awards/
exchanges-to-the-usa/postgraduates/
nursten-postgraduate-award-inmedical-studies)’
2005
2002
Sarah writes:
‘I married
Andrew Spikings
on Bournemouth
beach on 14th
June 2014.
Among the
bridesmaids were
Katie Grayling
(Mathematics, 2002) and Charlotte
Jupp (Mathematics, 2002). Several
other St Hugh’s alumni were among
the guests enjoying ice cream in the
sunshine.’
Dr Jason Sarfo-Annin
(Medicine)
Delyth writes: ‘I was awarded ‘Overall
Researcher of the Year 2014’ in the
Parliamentary Researcher of the Year
Awards. I was also awarded ‘Crossbench and Other Parties’ Researcher
of the Year 2014’ and attach a photo
of the awards ceremony, which took
place in March 2014 in the Speaker’s
House (House of Commons). I am
currently Head of Research for Plaid
Cymru in Westminster.’
Rakesh writes: ‘North Delta College is
an e-learning campus dedicated to
higher Mathematics. I started the
project in November 2014, and our
concept aims at using the best of
Internet Technology to support
English-speaking students worldwide by
providing affordable, down to earth
and thought provoking lessons.
Our goal is to facilitate the transition
between College and University as, as
teachers we noticed the main learning
obstacles are at that level. We invite
everyone to visit the website at: www.
northdeltacollege.com and leave us
some feedback. Those who want to
join in this new venture are most
welcome.’
2009
Miss Zhana Gamova (MBA)
Mrs Holly Burton Wilkinson
(nee Burton, History)
2014, I was bestowed with the “Most
Distinguished Order of the Crown of
Pahang – Knight Commander Award in
conjunction with His Royal Highness,
the Sultan of Pahang’s 83rd birthday.
The award comes with the Dato’ title
and recognises my efforts and
contributions to the Malaysian’s
economy and to the Pahang State with
his mining activities.’
2013
Mr Christopher Allen Wills
(Financial Strategy)
Zhana writes: ‘My son Alexander was
born on 2nd December 2013.’
2010
Mr Matthew Bailie
(Archaeology and
Anthropology)
Matthew writes: ‘My wife (Helena
Baillie, nee James) and I got married on
Saturday 16th August 2014.
Also, we welcomed our third child,
Joseph Ewart Baillie, on Sunday 31st
August 2014, and he weighed in at 8lb
11oz.’
Mr Edmund Owen
(Archaeology and
Anthropology)
Edmund writes: ‘In September 2013,
after travelling around France, I went to
the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
to start my Officer training course.
Commissioning on 8th August 2014,
I invited several good friends from
St Hugh’s to our Commissioning Ball
(Gemma Robson – Archaeology and
Anthropology, Joe Severs – Medicine).
I was offered a commission into the
Queen’s Dragoon Guards and spent
some time with them in Germany and
Cyprus before moving back to the UK
to start my phase 2 training.
I look back on my days at St Hugh’s
very fondly and hope to attend the
May Ball. I am also especially happy as
my younger brother Thomas Owen
has just been offered a place to read
Archaeology and Anthropology at
St Hugh’s!’
Holly writes: ‘I married Mr Ryan
Wilkinson (Astrophysics MPhys,
University of Liverpool, 2010-2014) at
St Paul’s Methodist Church, Basildon,
Essex on Sunday 10th August 2014.
We were very blessed to share our
special day with so many family and
friends, especially our good friends
from St Hugh’s.’
2011
Dato’ Chung Han Lee
(Executive MBA)
Chung Han writes: ‘I married Png Tze
Hua on 12th October 2013. In August
Christopher writes: ‘I have begun
work on a part time PhD at
Warwick Business School (WBS)
researching the European Airline
Industry transformation to a world
becoming less reliant on fossil fuels.
I have previously worked at British
Airways, Virgin Atlantic and now Swiss
International Air Lines (Lufthansa
Group).
In association with the International
Business Strategy, Sustainable Business
and Global Energy Groups at WBS, I
would welcome any collaboration from
former Oxford colleagues who might
be able to contribute with specialist
knowledge.
I can be contacted here: christopher.
wills@swiss.com.’
Please contact us if you would
like to share your news for the
next magazine. Details of how
to get in touch are on the back
cover of this magazine.
27
The May Ball
Matty Shaw’s (Modern Languages, 2013) work as Ball President for
the 2015 St Hugh’s Ball culminated on Saturday 9th May, in a hugely
successful event attended by students, staff and alumni. Before the
Ball got into its stride, 110 of our younger alumni gathered in the
courtyard of the China Centre. They were greeted by the Principal
and her guests before they launched themselves into the festivities.
A second year undergraduate reading French, Matty talks to us about
his experience of organising the St Hugh’s Ball.
What made you decide to
run for the position of Ball
President?
I would very much like to start a
career in events when I graduate.
In spite of having a background
in theatre, this was my first big
event. I went to several Oxford
balls in my first year, and wanted
a chance to try my hand at
creating something special.
What was the best part of
being Ball President, and
which aspects did you find
more challenging?
It probably sounds quite cliché, but the best bits were
definitely on the night. It can seem like quite a thankless task
until the moment itself but seeing St Hugh’s lit up made
the 10 months of hard work entirely worth it! I thoroughly
enjoyed working with my committee and the contractors. At
points, I found being in charge of people difficult as I felt like
a bit of a tyrant!
Tell me about your vision for the St Hugh’s Ball, and
the main theme?
28
highlight. The Correspondents, who have previously played
at Glastonbury and Bestival were our main act. We had
Karma Kid and Switch in the DJ tent, as well as a new
up-and-coming Indie band called Amber Run, and several
university bands and groups.
What advice would you give to future Ball Presidents?
Be very organised! Nothing can ever be done too early,
because at least then you won’t have a moment of real
panic. You will need to remember that lots of things need to
be transported into the gardens, so a detailed timetable of
everything arriving and being taken into College will help. I
will certainly be making a donation to the Garden Fund from
the Ball Fund very soon! Every meeting you have will bring
some bad news, but on the bright side, this will mean you
really thrive off the good news, like discounts. More than
anything, enjoy it!
We established the theme quite early on, at the end of
Trinity Term 2014. From having been to other balls, I
knew I didn’t want to do something along the same lines
of focussing on a particular culture or country. However,
the thing which instantly springs to everyone’s minds when
they think about St Hugh’s is that it has the most beautiful
grounds. This is how ‘The Enchanted Forest’ theme came to
life, which I especially supported. While the St Hugh’s Ball is
not one of the more expensive, I wanted it to be thought
through in the details, running throughout the entire site.
The Ball in Numbers
What were some of the highlights of the evening for
those who attended the Ball?
• 50 litres of vodka
Everyone agreed that we had some fantastic fireworks!
Certainly walking through the front gates was an experience,
seeing the flame throwers. We paid a lot of attention to
details throughout so that the initial vision could shine
through. The hidden pathway to the dodgems and the
hammocks were some things that people mentioned as
being especially popular. The music stages were another
• 40,000 plastic cups
• Open until 4.30am
• £1 from the sale of the each ticket was donated to
Oxford Homeless Pathways
• 1,700 guests, out of whom 110 were alumni
• 300 members of staff
• 300 bottles of Prosecco
• 10,000 portions of food
• 30 attempted fence jumpers
• Hours of meetings with the Estates Department:
more than expected!
Date of next St Hugh’s Ball: May 2017
© Keith Barnes
© Keith Barnes
Above: Elizabeth Wordsworth Fellow, William Louey, with
Jackie Lambert (née Moon, PPE, 1978), Honorary Fellow of
St Hugh’s.
29
St Hugh’s Events 2014-2015
by Kate Pritchard, Head of Communications and Marketing
It has been a busy year for our Principal, Development Office, and
all our staff involved in planning and delivering our alumni events
programme. Whether hosted in College, in the UK or further afield,
these events play an important role in ensuring our alumni continue
to feel part of the St Hugh’s community.
Alumni and guests
at Yishu 8, Beijing in
December 2014.
team organised a special private view of the William Blake
exhibition: ‘Apprentice and Master’ at the Ashmolean
Museum.
In March we said thank you to the individuals who have
helped support St Hugh’s at our annual Donors’ Dinner. A
few days later, St Hugh’s welcomed The Hon Andrew Kwok
Nang Li CBE, GBM, JP, QC, former Chief Justice of the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region, to deliver the biennial
Dr Mok Hing Yiu Lecture.
The Dr Mok Hing Yiu Lecture is held to advance academic
thinking and discussion, and to honour the Mok family who
have kindly donated to support the lecture series and the
Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre Building.
Our distinguished speaker, Principal and Fellows were joined
by the Chancellor, the RT Hon Lord Patten of Barnes CH,
and Mr Christopher and Mr Edwin Mok and their families.
Guests joined College’s Formal Hall Dinner after the lecture.
December saw the Principal and Director of Development
spend time in Beijing and Hong Kong meeting alumni, guests
and Friends of College. In Hong Kong, the Principal hosted
a drinks reception with the Acting British Consul General to
Hong Kong, Mrs Karen Bell in the official Residence of the
British Consulate-General. In Beijing, alumni and their guests
were hosted by the Principal at Yishu 8 house in the Former
Sino-French University building near to the Forbidden City,
in the heart Beijing.
On their return they hosted a community event in the
Dickson Poon University of Oxford China Centre Building
as a thank you to our neighbours for their patience during
the construction of the building. Many of these guests
were overwhelmed at the opportunity to ‘peek beyond
the St Hugh’s wall’ and we hope the event will help to
strengthen the relationship with our local community.
During June, the Principal hosted a lunch with alumni in
Abode restaurant, Exeter followed by a speech at the
Oxford Society Devon branch. June also saw us bid a sad
farewell to our finalists at a Leavers’ Celebration Brunch, but
we hope to see them at future alumni events!
In January we
welcomed the Rt Hon
Alistair Darling MP as
our guest speaker for
our alumni Burns
Night Supper. After a
Formal Hall dinner and
speeches, our guests
joined in with a lively
ceilidh in Mordan Hall. Booking is now open for Burns Night
Supper 2016 on Saturday 30 January 2016.
A celebration of Chinese New Year in February brought
together alumni, students, fellows, and China Centre
academics and staff, in the China Centre Building’s
Wordsworth Tea Room, to enjoy a Chinese orchestra,
excellent Chinese food and even try their hand at lion
dancing! This was also the month the Principal hosted
a lunch for alumni in Edinburgh and the Development
30
As part of the University of Oxford Meeting Minds, Alumni
Weekend in Europe during April, St Hugh’s hosted a dinner
in the music room of the oldest inn in Vienna. We were
pleased to welcome our alumni from across Europe to
Vienna, hosting the largest group in the restaurant.
© John Cairns
© Anna Bellettato
Alumni, current
students and parents
sharing a St Hugh’s
Burns Night Supper in
January.
The 2012 Dr Mok Hing Yiu Lecture on ‘Hong Kong’s
Destiny: China’s Metropolis, Asia’s World City’ was given
by Mr Stephen Lam, OBE, GBM, GBS, JP who was Former
Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong Government.
The Hon Andrew Kwok Nang Li CBE, GBM, JP, QC, former Chief Justice of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, at the Mok lecture in March.
DEV EL OPMENT A ND A L U MNI RELAT IONS
Our fascinating academic lectures over the past few months
have included:
• Professor Rhodri Lewis: ‘Hamlet and Hunting’
• Dr Michael Subialka: ‘Suffering Beauty, on Stage and
Screen’
• Dr Nicholas Perkins: ‘The Very Material Voice of LateMedieval Love Lyrics’
• Dr Collin Raymond: ‘Economics and Happiness’
Alumni and students
taking part in the Lion
Dancing workshop at
our Chinese New Year
event in February.
We love offering the opportunity to showcase our academic
talent to our community of alumni, Fellows and students and
the new series of academic lectures for 2015/2016 will be
publicised in September 2015 on our website.
For more details on our upcoming events: the Gaudy, the
Jubilee Lunch, Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Literary Festival, a
regional event in UAE, our Academic Lecture Series, please
see our website: www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/news-events/events/
We hope to see you at one of our events very soon.
© David Fisher
© Anna Bellettato.
Top right: Alumni
enjoying the drinks
reception in the SCR at
the Donors’ Dinner in
March
© David Fisher
Middle right: Dame
Elish enjoying good
conversation at the
Donors’ Dinner.
© David Fisher
Below: Student musicians
playing beautiful music
for our donors.
31
Myanmar
by Scott Schubert (MBA, 2013)
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, is an
enormous country, about the size of Germany and France combined.
In addition to its sheer size, it has a rich and significant history, and
an abundance of a variety of natural resources. Most importantly, the
people possess the warm and gentle nature characteristic of SouthEast Asian hospitality. In fact, numerous hotels and guest houses
claim to be able to provide you a “warmly welcome”.
Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.
car horns. Compared to other neighbouring countries, there
are very few motorbikes/scooters.
Fresh fruit and juice in
Yangon.
Until the last few years, this amazing country has been
largely shut off from the rest of the world. However, this
isolation, relative to the length of its history, was only a blip.
Actually, Myanmar was part of the international system.
For example, the Burmah oil company, a Scottish-owned
enterprise (that became part of what is now BP) was very
active in the production and export of oil in the late 19th
and early 20th century. Also, due to its location, situated
between China and India, for centuries it has been sought
after as a linkage between these two countries. Geopolitical
policies of this nature endure today (I recommend Thant
Myint-U’s book Where China Meets India for an excellent
account on this topic).
The city skyline is dominated by the Shwedagon Pagoda,
with its massive golden stupta and 76 carat diamond
crowning it off gloriously. This pagoda, not only due to
its enormity, is particularly important as it is said to house
strands of the Buddha’s hair brought back by merchants to
Myanmar after encountering the Buddha in India.
Golden pagodas continue to dominate the city, with the
Sule Pagoda in the downtown area, another golden pagoda
situated in the middle of a roundabout in front of the
independence monument. Although the footpaths, with
their numerous large holes exposing the drains below, can
be precarious, walking around the city centre is the best way
As the country is so large, I will focus on my experience in
Yangon in these brief remarks.
During the descent to Yangon International Airport, the
vegetation is similar to that of other South-East Asian
countries such as Thailand and Indonesia. The smack of
humidity is also of a similar intensity. The airport is very
representative of Myanmar’s recent opening. The terminal
building is modern and is undergoing continual expansion.
Then in the terminal building, there are copious amounts
of foreign brands claiming to welcome all the visitors to
Myanmar and stressing they are ‘open for business’.
The volume of traffic and the associated traffic jams are a
manifestation of the country’s rapid economic expansion.
The taxi drivers, at high speed weave and negotiate any
small advantage they can spot whilst communicating with
each other in what seems like a crude Morse code with their
32
connected to it in the room and when a delivery has arrived,
the roped is tugged on, ringing the bell alerting the occupants
of the delivery. This is then hoisted up and money sent back
down on the return journey.
The footpaths are lined with hawkers selling everything
from fruit to sim cards, clothes and second hand books. As
you walk by the residential buildings, you will notice ropes
hanging down with clips on the end. As none of the buildings
have elevators, this is an innovative method for deliveries to
be made to rooms in the higher floors. The rope has a bell
There is so much more to be said about this amazing
country and as foreign visitors are gradually permitted to
visit more and more places previously out of bounds, we
will have the chance to explore further. Myanmar is a must
visit and it has the potential to play a significant role in the
changing balance of international power.
I have found it very safe to walk around the streets, however
the restrictions are still felt. For example, on a recent trip,
I wanted to take a picture of the Australian Embassy (I am
Australian) but I was stopped by security. I am told that year
by year regulations are lessening these restrictions, but it is
still a reminder of the limitations of freedom that I would
otherwise take for granted.
33
© All photographs © Scott Schubert
The reclining buddha
in downtown Yangon.
The feet contain 108
distinctive symbols.
to gain appreciation of it. The local tea shops are a hive of
activity. They are simple, with plastic stools and low tables,
but this is where current affairs are discussed and business
is done. The brokers wear a bag slung over their shoulder
and are eager to trade. The traditional dress, the longyi, is
still the favoured clothing for men and women. It is also
very common for women to wear thanaka paste on each
cheek, a type of traditional cosmetic. Against this back drop
of tradition, foreign influences are creeping in and being
welcomed. KFC recently opened its first outlet and there
were queues up to two hours in the initial period.
University of Yangon
English Language Summer School
This year, led by St Hugh’s, we built on the success of
the inaugural Aung San Suu Kyi Summer School, which
took place in Summer 2013 and saw six pupils from
Burma, accompanied by their teacher, come to College
for two weeks of intensive English language tuition.
Ten undergraduate and graduate students from
several colleges travelled to Burma for a month in July
2014, to teach English at the University of Yangon.
project’s success, and she was very happy to tell us more
about this exciting initiative.
Tell me a bit about yourself. How did you end up
studying at St Hugh’s?
I grew up in Mandalay, where I went to an international
school and studied for my iGCSEs. After this, I went to a
school in central London – leaving home when I was 15. It
was an interesting time as I pursued my dream of coming to
Oxford.
Do you know of many other Burmese students in
Oxford?
There is no one else that I know personally, although I’ve
been told that there is another undergraduate studying
English at Oxford, and I know there have been a few
graduate students previously.
What was your role in the 2014 Burma English
Language Summer School project?
I was the only native Burmese speaker there, so working as
the Teaching Assistant often involved helping the student
tutors and solving any problems that came up. One of them
lost their wallet, while another got their passport wet and I
was on hand to help out and make sure they were ok.
Tell me about the project, how did it look while you
were there?
The University of Yangon was previously the largest higher
education institution in Burma, and used to be referred to
as ‘Asia’s University of Oxford’. However, during the military
rule, it was shut down and only accepted post-graduate
students. 2014 was the first year when new undergraduate
students were once again accepted at the University of
Yangon. Much like the University of Mandalay, Burma’s other
largest university, Yangon, accepts only students who attain
the top marks in the matriculation examination and it is a
real pride for Burmese students to study at either of these
institutions. However, unlike the educational system in the
UK, Burmese undergraduates are much younger – they start
their first year aged 16 or 17, as there are no A-Levels in
Burma.
We stayed on campus, together with the students.
However, the accommodation was separate for men and
women, and the curfew times were different, too. The
women’s hostel curfew was 6pm, while the men’s – 10pm.
The women were part of the first year undergraduate
hostel, which was great as it meant that food was provided
for us. Often, after the curfew, the Burmese students would
come for coffee, cake and a chat with the student tutors.
They often talked and learned even more about each other
in this way than in the short sessions provided!
The men lived in postgraduate accommodation, and I
think spent most of their evenings playing football with the
Burmese students. It was a great atmosphere – the Yangon
University students even gave the Oxford students Burmese
names.
For 2015, the programme, funded by Ooredoo, has been
expanded, with eleven students travelling to Burma for
eight weeks during July and August. One of the students
who travelled to the University of Yangon in 2014, Thiri
(Grace) Wai, is an undergraduate from St Hugh’s, reading
Engineering in her third year. Grace’s contribution as the
Teaching Assistant for the programme was invaluable to the
34
Discretionary Fund
by Thomas Kidney,
Regular Giving and Trusts Manager
How do you think the Yangon students felt about the
programme?
They really enjoyed
interacting with
students from
such a prestigious
university as
Oxford, and getting
to know native
English speakers.
Sometimes, they
commented that
they would have
liked to have had
more classes in
the daytime rather than early in the morning and late in the
afternoon. However, we had to fit in with the schedule of
the university there, which is more like school – a 9am start
and 3pm finish. That was very surprising for our students!
What would you say were the highlights of the
programme for you?
Without a doubt, seeing Yangon University so closely linked
with the University of Oxford was really significant. We were
there during the rainy season, and a lot of ceremonies took
place to which the Oxford students were always invited and
made to feel part of.
Have you kept in touch with any of the students from
the programme?
Yes, especially with the Lead Teacher Anja, and others. I am
looking forward to going back for a second year as Teaching
Assistant, and to seeing the programme develop and
improve once again.
How would you describe the situation in education in
Burma at the moment?
A lot has changed in the last few years, and many
international schools have been established, some of which
are linked with universities and schools in the UK, and other
English-speaking countries like Australia. There are lots of
Burmese students who go to Singapore, Thailand or Australia
to study now.
At present, there are two main trends in education. On one
hand, there is the government system, which relies upon
the matriculation exam to place students in universities.
Many of those involved in this rote-learning system feel
they do not learn much. On the other hand, there is the
private international school trend, which favours tuition in
English. There have been many changes, especially in the
private, monastery-led system, which uses a learner-centred
approach for teaching rather than a rote-learning system.
I think the biggest difference here is in the class sizes: up to
100 pupils in a primary school class, which decreases to 3040 at the university level.
While we have a
number of special
and personal
projects (such as
the Ann Smart
Fellowship in Law
or the Luke-Lunn
Teaching Fund for
Mathematics) most
of our alumni and
friends make gifts
towards the Discretionary Fund. This is the College’s
‘area of greatest need’ and gifts towards the
Discretionary Fund touch every area of college life.
The Fund provides support for our undergraduates and
graduates in financial need. It safeguards the tutorial system.
It supports younger academics in their first teaching posts
which enrich our student experience. It also helps preserve
the historic and beautiful environment that our students live
and work in.
The Discretionary Fund perhaps gets its own ‘fortnight in
the sun’ during our annual telethon at Easter. Each year we
ask around a dozen current students to contact alumni living
and working around the world. We know that the campaign
is not for everyone, however it is the most effective way
to put our current students in touch with our alumni and
ask for support. This past March, our team of 12 current
students had over 600 conversations with alumni around
the world and we have received a total of £126,000. I want
to thank each and every one of those alumni who spoke to
one of our students, regardless of your decision to make a
gift.
Over the coming years, we would like to get more of you
giving regularly and indeed giving to College. Each year 14%
and 18% of College alumni make a gift which usually puts us
at the Oxford average of 15% or just above it. With colleges
like Exeter, Merton and Balliol achieving participation rates
above 30%, we would like to keep pace with those Colleges.
Similarly, we would like to increase the numbers of those
of you who give regularly – monthly, quarterly and annual
direct debits make a large impact.
Finally, one often overlooked area of the Regular Giving
programme is legacy fundraising. We have nearly 200 alumni
indicating a wish to leave a legacy to the College. Legacy
gifts can have a transformative impact on College and are
also a very tax-efficient way of giving. If you are interested in
leaving a legacy, then please contact me in the Development
Office at thomas.kidney@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk or by calling
01865 613 839.
I look forward to meeting with as many of you as possible in
the coming weeks, months and years.
35
Alumni Memories
Return to Vienna
by Helga Harrison (Modern History, 1942)
Landing in Schwechat as an alumna
– a strange sensation. Of course
I had been back before, but how
would I see it now? I had looked
at the alumni programme – a
walking tour, well, I could still find
my way blindfolded through the
City; Ellmayer – both my brothers
had learnt to dance there: I was too
young then, I decided, I am too old
now.
was shaped like a soup plate, a
wonderful place for tobogganing
in winter. Winter was winter,
snow would fall as it ought, and
while my eldest brother – 7 years
older – brought out his skis,
Nanny would bring out the sled
for Pick and me.
At the entrance to the Prater
was a hot-dog booth – ‘heisse
Wuerstel’. It had something
to do with Schubert for it had
Schubert’s head portrayed on it,
and I believe it may still be there,
Schubert and all. If we were lucky
and had been good, we might
stop there on our way. These
Wuerstel in Vienna tasted better
than any hot dogs anywhere, even
today.
There is Sacher, crowded
with tourists who are eating
Sachertorte, slices that have
stood ready at the back and are
probably dry and tasteless by
the time they arrive at the table.
Demel, still a wonderland of
pastries, but so crowded I doubt
anyone could get a table.
As the light faded, and we were
tired, Nanny would let us sit on
the sled, Pick behind me with
his arms round me so I wouldn’t
fall off. Nanny pulled us along
There are still Fiakers on
the avenue, hurrying now as the
Stefansplatz and white clad
dusk turned to darkness. Then
girls in them celebrating their
the lamplighters arrived, with long
confirmation; traditional, but now
poles, and lit the gas lamps, and
Helga Harrison with her Nanny, Pick and her little sister.
meant mainly for the tourists.
as the flame spurted up, the snow
turned to silver. I must have been
No, this time memories
2-3, not older, and yet that memory is still crystal clear.
came back from
somewhere buried, perhaps When we got home, cold and tired, there would be hot
woken by the recent death
chocolate, with cream, Schlag, if Nanny was in a good mood,
of my brother – the last
and a croissant.
surviving member of my
My children called these ‘the olden days’, and they were
family, the last person who
right. No one can go through a door into the past. None of
could share the memories
our alumni, I am sure, has seen a little boy going to his first
of our childhood. Two
school with a satchel on his back and a slate and sponge
years older than me, Pick
hanging from it, as my eldest brother did.
shared my nursery life, and
a very happy life it was too.
They were secure days, too, although I also remember the
We lived near the Prater,
the rendezvous of Nannies,
I think, and there we
were taken daily. Not the
amusement park, but the
nature park, wide tree-lined
avenues, called ‘Alleen’,
with cafés, inevitably, at
regular intervals. There
was a large meadow, called
‘Tellerwiese’ because it
Pick’s first day at school.
36
workers’ uprising, a near civil war, when we heard the shots
from the new workers’ flats. But the children were sheltered,
and the shadow that was beginning to cover our lives was
hidden from us.
Helga Harrison’s article ‘Reunions’ published in The Jewish
Quarterly (Winter 1999‑2000, p. 65-72), charts her departure
from Vienna and move to England. Copies are available from
the Development Office
(development.office@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk).
COL L EGE NEW S
Events for your diary
Sunday 6 September
Alice and the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
Matinee performance and family-friendly tea party
Location: St Hugh’s College. Time: 4.00pm - 7.00pm.
Cost: £35 (adult) and £18.50 (children) includes Alice performance by Creation Theatre
Friday 19 – Sunday 21 September
Oxford Alumni Weekend
Saturday 19 September
Gaudy
Evensong, drinks reception, dinner in the Dining Hall and a post dinner jazz band. Priority
will be given to those who matriculated in the following years, although everyone is
welcome to attend: up to and including 1954; Jubilee years 1945,1955, 1965; plus 1981,
1982; 1983, 1990; 1991, 1992, 2008; 2009 and 2010
Time: 7.00pm for 7.30pm. Cost: £45
Sunday 20 September
Jubilee Lunches
A special reunion lunch for alumni who matriculated in 1945, 1955 and 1965
Location: St Hugh’s College. Time: 12.00pm for 12.30pm. Free but booking required.
Friday 16 October
Literary Day for Alumni
This one-day event includes the Dorothy Hammonds Book Launch and the Literary
Activism Now Symposium.
Location: St Hugh’s College. Time: From 10.00am. Free but booking required.
Wednesday 28 October
Academic Lecture
Dr Damian Jenkins MBE, Lecturer in Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at St Hugh’s
‘Clever brain, silly brain.’ Why women struggle to break the glass ceiling.
Location: St Hugh’s College, China Centre Lecture Theatre. Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm.
Cost: £10
Wednesday 18th November
St Hugh’s at the Charles Dickens Museum
An intimate event at the former home of Charles Dickens with guest speaker Claire
Tomalin. Claire Tomalin is a renowned biographer and expert on Dickens, who famously
wrote Charles Dickens – A Life
Location: 48 Doughty Street, London, WC1N 2LX. Time: 6:30pm
Thursday 26 November
St Hugh’s College Dinner in the United Arab Emirates
In the presence of HM Ambassador Philip Parham.
Location: The Residence, British Embassy, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Time: 7.00pm for 7.30pm. Free but booking required.
Sunday 29 November
Carol Service
Carol service in Mordan Hall followed by supper in the Dining Hall.
Time: 6.15pm. Free but booking required.
Wednesday 2 December
Academic Lecture
Professor Adrian Moore, Tutorial Fellow in Philosophy at St Hugh’s
‘Immortality and Infinity’
Location: St Hugh’s College. Time: 6.30pm - 8.30pm. Cost: £10
Thursday 10 December
St Hugh’s at the Varsity Match
Location: Twickenham. Kick Off: 2.30pm. Cost: Premium tickets and Blues Village £47
For up-to-date information on all our events please visit http://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/alumni-friends/alumni-events/
To book a place via our online shop, please visit www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/discover/shop Username: sthughscollege Password: sthughs125
For further information, please email development.office@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk or telephone +44 (0)1865 274958.
St Hugh’s College
Oxford
Thank you to all who contributed to the St Hugh’s College Magazine. Please contact us if you would like to share
your news and stories in the next Magazine. We would be delighted to hear from you.
The Development Office, St Hugh’s College, St Margaret’s Road, Oxford OX2 6LE
Tel: +44 (0)1865 274958 Fax: +44 (0)1865 274912 Email: development.office@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk
www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk
Linked in
Reg. Charity No: 1139717

- St Hugh`s College

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